An amusing incident is alleged to have occurred at the Tipton Sports centre during the election count. That is if Julian Saunders author of the Sandwell Skidder is to be believed, and, occasionally, he may be.
What Mr. Saunders was doing there, or rather how he got in, he does not disclose in his blog. Admission was limited and effectively one had to be invited by a candidate or political party. Mr Saunders, to chose one alias, or Jules, if one may address him familiarly, is unusually coy about who asked him. The suspicion is that he is a secret kipper.
But kipper or not, according to him, he was threatened with a physical battering from Mrs. Eling aka Palfreyman, wife of the great Sandwell leader, and in the hall where the count was taking place! She and the Leader had worked themselves up to this after first orally abusing poor Jules outside the council house before the mayor making ceremony.
According to the Skidder, Mrs Eling used some very unparliamentary language to Jules. The kind of language often found on his blog. While he does not say that Eling actually held his wife’s coat, Jules hints heavily at Eling encouraging his bantam to fight.
A few months ago, this encounter would have been unimaginable. Then, Jules had naively fallen hook line and sinker for Eling’s promise to drain the Sandwell swamp, failing to see that the real objective was to crush political rivals while winking at the faults of supporters. Poor Jules had been hoodwinked and flattered by Eling’s attention. Because attention he craves. In the same piece he complains that Tories at the count generally ignored him.
What caused the fall out, according to him, was Jules’ revelation that Stalin Eling had a dacha in rural Derbyshire. This is not surprising since Derbyshire is closer to Rotherham, where Eling has a day job with the council, than Sandwell. Also rural Derbyshire is likely to be more congenial than urban Smethwick, where is located, what might be described as, the Eling official residence. However, perhaps Eling was a little sensitive that the electors of Abbey might react adversely upon learning of the time he spends at the Derbyshire cottage. After all, Eling has recently expressed regret that many high earners in Sandwell frequently live outside the borough and spend outside Sandwell to the borough’s economic detriment. Well, he should know.
At risk of disillusioning and further distressing Jules, we can reveal information the Skidder has sought for some time concerning the standards investigation into Cllr Hackett. In its initial report Hackett was adjudged guilty of improper disclosure of confidential information. That finding was reversed in the final report after the enquiry had received e-mails of the same date from Eling and side kick deputy Khatun. Both said that there had been no disclosure of details. Details or not, unquestionably Hackett had revealed the identity of a parent whose prosecution he was authorising for their child’s non attendance at school. Anywhere other than Sandwell, the initial finding is most unlikely to have been reversed on the dictat of council leader and deputy.
The swamp’s not draining, somebody’s left the tap on.